As illustrated in FIG. 1, related art sensor systems 100 utilized for navigation, such as Attitude and Heading Reference Systems (AHRS) and Inertial Navigation Systems (INS), typically include a linear stack of discrete, uniaxial sensors. The related art sensor system 100 illustrated in FIG. 1 includes a housing or a chassis 101 housing a linear stack of three uniaxial accelerometers 102 stacked on top of a linear stack of three uniaxial magnetometers 103. Stacking the sensors 102, 103 in a linear arrangement results in a relatively large volumetric package or envelope of the sensor system 100. For instance, related art measurement while drilling (MWD) survey tools utilized in the oil and gas industry are typically confined to a 1.875 inch outer diameter chassis 101 that fits inside a 3.5 inch drill collar, and the axial arrangement of the sensors 102, 103 and corresponding electronics housed in the chassis 101 may have a length extending over 2 feet along an axis of the chassis 101. Additionally, the relatively large volumetric size of the related art sensor system 100 may result in relatively high cost, weight, and power consumption, and may inhibit the sensor system 100 from being positioned in an optimal location.
The significant spacing between the sensors 102, 103 in the related art sensor system 100 may also result in positional errors or uncertainties when the output signal of the sensor system 100 is utilized by a navigation algorithm because navigation algorithms typically assume a single point location of the sensor system 100. Although pre-operational calibration may be performed to compensate for the fixed offsets between the sensors 102, 103, the related art sensor system 100 is also subject to deformation during use (e.g., during a drilling operation), which may require more complex real-time calibration to compensate for positional errors or uncertainties caused by the deformation of the sensor system 100.
Moreover, the related art sensor system 100 is also sensitive to external environmental stimuli, such as thermal and mechanical gradients across the sensor system 100, due to the relatively large volumetric size of the sensor system 100 and the spacing between the sensors 102, 103. For instance, different thermal or mechanical loads (e.g., stresses) on different portions of the sensor system 100 may alter the output of the sensor system 100 depending on the distribution of the thermal and mechanical loads across the sensor system 100. These spatially-dependent effects exhibited by the related art sensor system 100 may result in positional errors and uncertainties when the sensor system 100 is incorporated into a navigation system.